One Step Forward, One Step Back

We've had a frustrating couple of weeks while we wait and wait some more for our office furniture to be finished. We hired a cabinet maker to custom build cabinets and a Murphy bed for our office/spare bedroom. Everything has been cleared out of the room since early March, the carpet was ripped out, walls refinished and painted and a small window seat build by our handyman. Now we wait. It was looking promising when they showed up today to install but of course things just couldn't go smoothly. The wardrobe cabinet was built too large so it and the Murphy bed couldn't be installed in fact the wardrobe had to be taken back to be rebuilt. Now I ask what else can happen. As it is, this remodel of the office is taking longer than the complete gutting and remodel of our kitchen last Summer.

While we have been living with office stuff and boxes all over the house I just had to clean and organize my studio to have one tranquil place in the house. I should really clean and organize it once a month but just can't seem to get myself to do it. I went in there today to get away from the cabinets being brought into the office and it was so clean and organized I didn't know where to start or what to do. I guess I'm going to have to get it messed up again to get creative. Here is a few pictures of the clean studio.

As you can tell it isn't a very large room so I have to make the best of all the space in there. I still need to organize the open bookshelf cabinet a bit more but I just kind of wore myself out and had to stop.

This is a sneak peak of what how the office is coming along.

This side of the rooms cabinets are finished except for the shelves, hardware and other small details. I love how the leaded glass turned out.

This is the wardrobe cabinet that they had to remove and are rebuilding. It is small but a guest really won't need that much room to hang things up. It's not like they are going to stay long or at least that's what we hope.

 Here is the Murphy bed as they were unloading it out of the truck and dismantling it so it would fit into the room.

Poor Murphy bed in pieces and it is still in this condition tonight....just waiting to be put back together again.

and now a fun little collection to share.....

Aurora Borealis

  Curated By: danasjewelryd...

ArtFire.com

Handmade Gifts

Giving Back

I titled this post giving back as I'm getting ready for a jewelry show for a Guild I belong to and will be donating 30% of the proceeds a local non-profit organization that supports Mary Bridge Children's Hospital. I've been hard at work getting some new items made, making jewelry bags, designing new labels and just sorting through all the jewelry I have available. I'm excited about this show as it does give back to the community and helps pay my bills which are all good things especially if you ask my hubby. I might even be able to buy a few more beads or heaven forbid some silver....I think the price of silver is another story especially when the price of silver closed at $37.72..Yuk.

I would show you a picture of my craft room but shudder to think of what you might think. Oh my, it is such a mess right now, sewing stuff, jewelry stuff, paper crafts and various other items crowd the table in there. Yea I know, it's that way all the time. I thought I was the messiest crafter around until my Art Charm group I belong to had a Where you "Work" contest. We all posted pictures of our crafting space...and guess what, I'm not the messiest. My husband couldn't believe it until I showed him some photos. It was fun seeing everyones work area and how some of them organize all their stuff. Lots of great ideas for containing things. One of them is a hanging shoe organizer that you put on the back of a door. All those little pockets can hold all types of goodies.

With the mess in the craft room we continue to live with the mess in the living room until our office is finished. We are now waiting on the cabinet maker to install the custom cabinets and the Murphy bed. It was supposed to be completed today but they were running behind and the cabinets aren't finished yet. I just want to get all the mess cleaned up before we have to pack it up again to refinish the hardwood floors in the living room. Will we ever be finished?

I think with everything going on I'm just tired, oh and to top it off I'm teaching a class tomorrow at Shipwreck Beads in Lacey, WA. So, if you are in the area, come join us. Here is the link to the class info. http://www.shipwreckbeads.com/catalog/Classes/Wire-Working-Classes//orderBy/sku/itemsPerPage/20/page/1/item/14CS0411 I'll be teaching my Standard Gem Tree design.

I'll try to remember to take photos of the class and jewelry party to share with you later in the week but until then I'll leave you with this photo I took of some art charms for a swap I'm participating in called Adopt-an-Ancestor. I made these using Tim Holtz Fragments which are thick pieces of plastic that I just glued the image to the back and then sealed. These photos are of my husbands family and are from the 1920-40's.